Milling birch last weekend

[DRB]

Finally go to milling my stash of log last week end.

First picture is a normal birch white birch log

Next pictures are of an unusual dark centered birch. Its 18" across at the small end and solid all the way through. I kept turning this log to keep cutting the best face so that I would get as many nice boards as possible.

 

[DRB]

I have never cut a birch with so much color. I will have to save this for some thing special.

More pics of the rest of the log.

 

[DRB]

Not a bad half day milling birch. Nice to mill a hard wood for a change.

 

[mtngun]

Quite the sawdust pile.

 

[mtngun]

Good looking lumber.

 

[TraditionalTool]

Nice haul of wood! That is one big @$$ pile of sawdust!

 

[DRB]

And it's getting bigger. Still more logs to mill. A CSM produces lots of sawdust. Oh well the logs are free.

 

[820wards]

Finally go to milling my stash of log last week end.

First picture is a normal birch white birch log

Next pictures are of an unusual dark centered birch. Its 18" across at the small end and solid all the way through. I kept turning this log to keep cutting the best face so that I would get as many nice boards as possible.

That birch is really nice looking. I have neighbors who have cut them down because of the stuff they drop all the time. I'll have to keep my eyes open for the next one going down.

jerry-

 

[Brmorgan]

I love milling birch with the Alaskan. It's so clean compared to the dried-out Douglas Fir I'm usually suffering through, and if really green it cuts a lot faster too.

I just dropped this big 16" Birch in the backyard up by the shop on Sunday:

It had the Bronze Birch Borer beetles into it and was dying from the top down. I figured I may as well drop it now and at least salvage the main trunk before the rot spreads down too. It'll make some nice lumber. I've been needing some more Birch stock so I have enough to finish off a big Birch trestle dining table I've been slowly working at building. I also have a ~10" X 10' log from another tree that should be useful for some 2X2 spindle stock etc.

More info about dropping it in my old "rate my stump" thread in the CS forum over HERE.

 

[BobL]

Crikey that's some good looking wood you have there. It looks like that log just fits under the mill. I guess you can alway strap that saw to an alaskan to break a bigger log up?

 

[htpd43]

that is some beautiful grain. As usual I wish I could find a log like that around here. I don't see many big birch trees in my area. How much milling did it take to make that pile of saw dust?

 

[TraditionalTool]

And it's getting bigger. Still more logs to mill. A CSM produces lots of sawdust. Oh well the logs are free.

Can't beat the magic "F" word...free logs are a gift!

 

[DRB]

Brad looks like your birch trees are dying the same way that they all are here to. From the top down. We hardly have a healthy one left.

 

[DRB]

Crikey that's some good looking wood you have there. It looks like that log just fits under the mill. I guess you can alway strap that saw to an alaskan to break a bigger log up?

I don't have to worry about anything larger as my mill will handle any tree on my property with a little trimming. My alaskan goes on road trips.

 

[DRB]

that is some beautiful grain. As usual I wish I could find a log like that around here. I don't see many big birch trees in my area. How much milling did it take to make that pile of saw dust?

Lots. A couple years worth piled there now.

 

[Brmorgan]

Brad looks like your birch trees are dying the same way that they all are here to. From the top down. We hardly have a healthy one left.

Yes, the borer beetles are spreading farther north due to the warmer winters of late. You don't have to go too much further north though to hit their boundary (for now). They're very difficult to get rid of; any trees with the tell-tale rings of holes must be cut and burned, no matter if they look healthy still. Otherwise the beetles just fly on to the next one. It takes a few years for the trees to really show the effects of the bugs, often unfortunately far too late to do anything about them.